Where are the world builders?

So recently there has been a ton of talk about the living story, the quality of it, the cons, the pros etc etc(please keep that discussion out of this thread). All of this has me wondering, where are the original world builders; Ree Soesbee and Jeff Grubb?

Are they still employed at Anet, and if so what are they doing? Obviously Ree was busy with Sea of Sorrows for a long time but what has she been tasked with since then? And what has Jeff Grubb been doing all this time? I'm wondering because these 2 people would obviously be in charge of the lore of any significant expansion type content, yet anet says they're not currently working on an expansion. And they have not been assigned to help with the living story as far as we know, so what gives?

I don't necessarily expect anyone to know for certain but it'd be interesting to hear what you guys think they might be up to.

Edit: For the sake of this thread lets assume they are not working on an expansion, what other interesting things might Jeff and Ree have been working on since the launch of the game?

Also, please keep talk about the quality of the living story to the threads that are actually about the living story.

Yeah that's kinda the line I'm going with as well. Even if they say they aren't currently working on a expansion I can't believe they aren't even working on it on a conceptual level with artwork and basic lore ideas. I can really not think of what else these 2 devs would be doing other then consulting the living story teams when they have questions about the lore. But maybe that's just me optimistically stretching facts to suit my conclusion; that at some level a expansion is in the works even if it's just in a small conceptual way.

Still I'm curious as to what other possibilities there are, what they might be doing if they're not working on an expansion.

What about future living story stuff, beyond the planned stuff with scarlet? Might they be working on something to do with that perhaps. Maybe planning out a more detailed story arch for once this Scarlet stuff is done?

As for the world builders, I imagine they're working on story content for future content, whether that is expansion or living story. Personally, I would love to see an expansion, but we really don't know what they're going to do. The last I heard was that they were reviewing whether an expansion would work or not, or whether it was better to push expansion content through via the living story.

But put it this way: in a video game company, everyone is put to work. It's not like they're coming in everyday and just staring at a wall. They must be working on something if they're still on the payroll.

Also keep in mind that much of what's going on at Anet has the classic marks of NCsoft's dirty hands forcing Developers to compromise their game for the sake of profit. People always ask why Blizzard was able to make such a sucessful game, well part of it is they're the developer and the publisher so they don't have to do anything they don't want. Also means that when you actually buy something from them it goes right back into their pockets instead of GW2 in which microtransaction profits go into NCsoft's hands and they decide if they're going to dole any of that profit back to the developer.

Well if they are working on a expansion BETTER not be expansion that just opens new zones and maps already on map of Tyria.
Cause if they do that it will be the last hole in already sinkin` ship !

BTW my opinion about LS has never changed i always thought it`s bad and just out of context and so away from original lore. I honestly hope they stop making these !

As goes with Ree and Jeff who knows they might be there they might be long gone, who cares anyway, Anet has been acting like secret cult ever since people started asking explanation for their "strange" way of development !

I hope Ree will either really step it up or does nothing for the next story. The PS was directed by her. It can't be counted as a story, that is how bad it was. I won't go into detail on this because I have done this a dozen times before.

SoS was not bad and not that good either. Solid novel but nothing special imho.

I would like to think they're working on a major update with significant lore - maybe they're working on a way for us to travel to Cantha and play as tengu? That would be my ideal hope and dream. Hopefully they're sorting out the lore there and what's happened over the past 250 years as we have minimal information about it. Hopefully there's a new dragon, or at least a major threat to Tyria along the same lines as the dragons.

I also hope there are more personal stories where we can make important decisions and actually be the hero of the story, rather than 'the helper'. That was the main downside of the personal story, as well as the fact that the fight against Zhaitan pretty much sucked (although I did love the idea of weakening his 'parts' beforehand - kind of like fighting Sauron in The Lord of the Rings).

Hopefully we find out more about the races they've introduced in the game world with Guild Wars 2, like the largos, the kodan, the quaggan, etc. I wouldn't want them to be playable as such, although it would be pretty cool if done right. I do think this is the time for a major update/expansion, though. So... fingers crossed they are working on something major!

In fact, I do remember them saying in a recent interview that people are working on things behind the scenes they're not yet ready to reveal to the public just yet. Maybe Ree and Jeff are involved in those mystical things behind closed curtains?

I would like to think they're working on a major update with significant lore - maybe they're working on a way for us to travel to Cantha and play as tengu? That would be my ideal hope and dream. Hopefully they're sorting out the lore there and what's happened over the past 250 years as we have minimal information about it. Hopefully there's a new dragon, or at least a major threat to Tyria along the same lines as the dragons.

I also hope there are more personal stories where we can make important decisions and actually be the hero of the story, rather than 'the helper'. That was the main downside of the personal story, as well as the fact that the fight against Zhaitan pretty much sucked (although I did love the idea of weakening his 'parts' beforehand - kind of like fighting Sauron in The Lord of the Rings).

Hopefully we find out more about the races they've introduced in the game world with Guild Wars 2, like the largos, the kodan, the quaggan, etc. I wouldn't want them to be playable as such, although it would be pretty cool if done right. I do think this is the time for a major update/expansion, though. So... fingers crossed they are working on something major!

In fact, I do remember them saying in a recent interview that people are working on things behind the scenes they're not yet ready to reveal to the public just yet. Maybe Ree and Jeff are involved in those mystical things behind closed curtains?

Remember that they were working on "anet style of raids" awhile back. I like to think that they are still going to release that.

Oh yeah, I don't remember where I read about that exactly or what the exact words were but there was some hint about larger then 5man instanced type content being in the works a while back. They could do some interesting things with that for sure, seeing what they did with the tequatl fight I'd very much enjoy something like that on a smaller scale. In fact that's what I would like to see the Elder Dragon fights be. That'd be pretty cool I think, and a good way to emphasize the power of these beings, having 15-25 guys go at them instead of the standard 5.

I definitely agree with that if they're on the payroll they must be doing something. The mystery is what exactly.

Ree and Jeff working on expanding canthan/elonian lore in preparation for future content in those areas would be interesting, and sounds plausible enough (even if it's not immediately usable they need that type of conceptual work done to have opportunities at creating content relative to that area of the world, even if it might not be used it would not surprise me if there was a lot of lore created about those areas during the past year we might only see if content is created for it.) Though I'd like to see stuff a little closer to home first. Like what's going on in the crystal desert/maguma wastes. Maybe a trip to the isle of janthir and finally get some very much needed insights into the mursaat(and the seers?) or maybe get some juicy insights into Glints offspring. Possible content bridging Palawa Joko and the elder dragons have been talked about, it'd be cool to have to team up with him once again (possibly after first seeing atrocities committed by him and later being forced into yet another uneasy alliance with this monster?)

Do you remember what interview that was you read about them having some things behind the curtain not being ready to be revealed yet robsy? I'd be very keen at reading it.

I definitely agree with that if they're on the payroll they must be doing something. The mystery is what exactly.

Well, Jeff was roaming about the Anet Pax party last August, and I'm pretty sure Ree is around. I also remember reading one of Mattew Medina's blog posts about something he worked on very early this year that he can't talk about. Not sure what he could've been referring to though...

Edited by Archaes, 27 November 2013 - 04:58 PM.

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